New-York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital

Children's Hospital Patient Tower

Poltronieri Tang & Associates worked with Ewing Cole Cherry Brott and Davis Brody Bond on the planning and design of the new 268,000 SF $120 million New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital which opened in November 2003.

Significant components and features of the new Children’s Hospital building include: 

• Three new inpatient units totaling 100 beds, with specialized areas for cardiology, neurology, bone marrow and organ transplant, oncology, and clinical research units  
• Most patient beds are located in large 385 SF private rooms with dedicated nursing, patient and family functional zones
• Through the careful and comfortable design of these rooms family members are encouraged to stay with their children and become full partners in their care
• The bed floors also feature welcoming Child Life suites at each unit entrance, in-room admissions capability, on-unit public school rooms for patients, procedure rooms, physician on-call rooms, and staff meeting and lounge space
• A 50-bed light-filled NICU, featuring innovative semi-private patient bays with bedside nursing and family support amenities  
• In addition to a surgical procedure room located on the floor, an on-unit family sleep suite is also provided
• A 14-bed PICU, bringing the total number of hospital PICU beds to 27  
• Family in-room sleeping accommodations are provided to complement multiple decentralized family lounges  
• A special clinical research sub-unit is also located within the PICU
• A diagnostic and treatment unit that includes pediatric MRI, cardiac cath, interventional radiology, anesthesia, and pre- and post-procedure sections
• A spacious and inviting lobby with concierge and reception desk, gift shop, café, conference center, history and donor walls and a multi-use “Winter Garden” performance space

The interior design theme included extensive display of quotes and illustrations from children’s books on all patient floors, with the books themselves available for reading by children and their families.   Ms. Poltronieri worked closely with numerous children’s book authors to integrate their work within the fabric of architectural and interior design.  In addition, the main hospital entrance and lobby has a continuous colorful “cornice” border, an original work by noted contemporary artist Sol Lewit commissioned specifically for the Children’s Hospital.

Programming and planning for the building began in early 1997 and involved input from over 350 staff, family, and community members.  Laura Poltronieri was responsible, first as the leading member of the Ewing Cole Cherry Brott project team, and then with Poltronieri Tang & Associates, for the development of the building’s programmatic concept and functional planning, including the vision statement, room-by-room space program and design of individual departmental layouts. She led all major client, fundraising and hospital board presentations, advised the client on major value engineering issues and helped to develop the building’s unique interior design theme of children’s literature.

Additional innovative planning and design features include:

• Decentralized pediatric pharmacies located throughout the building
• Decentralized nursing stations within all patient care areas
• Strategically located child life facilities and family support suites, including reading nooks, family kitchens, lounges, and laundry facilities
• Dedicated elevators and corridors that separate visitor and public circulation routes from those used for patient transport, non-patient support and services
• Discrete and enclosed “backstage” service areas located adjacent to the service elevators that are zoned to contain and screen materials management functions from public and patient view

"Laura Poltronieri's vision and spirit allowed us to create the Children's Hospital of our dreams. It is hard to imagine our final result without her. She's made a great partner, confidant, collaborator, kindred spirit and she's an accomplished architect as well. We dreamed, Laura made our dreams come true."

Cynthia Sparer
Executive Director,
Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital

“Laura Poltronieri’s planning and design skills were invaluable to us. We thought we knew what we wanted. We were wrong. My advice to anyone planning a children’s health care facility is to meet with her. You will see for yourself how important a role she can play in your project.”

R. Peter Altman, MD
Surgeon-in-Chief, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital,
VP Medical Affairs, Children’s Health System New York-Presbyterian Hospital